Preview: Dragon’s Crown

Said to be a spiritual successor to Sega Saturn’s Princess Crown, Vanillaware’s and Atlus’ upcoming Dragon’s Crown is a two dimensional side-scrolling beat’em up game coming out for PlayStation 3 and the Vita systems.

This new adventure takes places throughout a labyrinth of underground tunnels. Players choose from six character classes — fighter, wizard, dwarf, amazon, sorceress, or elf. The goal of the adventure is to prevent evil magic-users from gaining control of a legendary treasure called, “Dragon’s Crown.” Each class has their own strengths and weaknesses. For example: wizards can damage foes over a larger area and dwarves tend to have lower defensive stats. Of course there are also items along the way to give skills a boost.

The decisions made throughout the game affect which areas can be visited. Events such as running from battle or stealing an item from an enemy can reveal alternate paths. Dragon’s Crown will have an online multiplayer feature, letting players team up with three other adventurers on PSN. If a member of the party dies during battle, you’ll be able to replace them with a computer copy of their character. Sony’s cross buy list will also include Dragon’s Crown, allowingswitching between consoles without losing your spot.

With a bounty of interesting features, Dragon’s Crown looks to be fun diversion when released sometime in 2013.